


Everyone Needs a Cuddle Buddy

by sorasbootay



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, M/M, Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt, like oh my god, literally just fluff, pidge hates them but is happy for them, pretty gay, shiros in here at the beginning but literally never anywhere else, these bois i s2g, theyll be the death of me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-31
Updated: 2016-12-31
Packaged: 2018-09-13 18:57:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9137173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sorasbootay/pseuds/sorasbootay
Summary: "Sorry that you had to deal with me all night" Keith spoke up first.Lance chuckled lightly at that and shrugged it off, "It wasn't that bad." He replied, not trying to figure out what he had exactly meant by that. He was too awake to get back to sleep, and sadly, the same was for Keith.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I have???? A lot of voltron headcanons okAY and my biggest one is that keith is secretly rly cuddly and he loves attention so?? ye??

Keith knew that he was one of the most touchy and cuddly paladins, despite what everyone had said before.

He was a close second to Hunk in all honesty. He loved hugging, cuddling, and anything of the like as long as it was with friends and people he knew. Keith was also prone to nightmares, leaving him able to be awake until he felt safe enough to go back to sleep, or tired himself out just to get a few hours of sleep. In the place of nightmares, he went to Hunks room, knocking on the door and usually being let inside right after. He would just cuddle with the bigger guy, letting himself feel protected by the yellow paladin. Sometimes though, Hunk was too tired to wake up from his deep slumber to answer the light knock on his door. Keith could understand that and didn't want to hold Hunk to feel obligated to stuff like this, so he went to the training deck and trained into the early hours of the morning. It always worked to tire himself to the point where he didn't remember the dream anymore. It happened almost every night of the week, and with how hard the training was being, Keith didn't really have a lot of time to sleep between staying up til 3AM almost every night and waking up at 8AM. The other paladins had started to notice too after Keith was basically passing out during any break they had while training. Lance was the one to worry the most.

They were all sitting down in the lounge area after a day of hard training, everyone tired and ready to sleep for the next few days if possible. Keith thought he actually could with how tired he was. Shiro dismissed them all after a short meeting including the usual, "good job today", "we did really well", "I'm proud of you guys, let's do just as well tomorrow." and the like. Shiro really was such a natural leader that it hurt. Pidge had gotten up and yawned, rubbing their eyes as they walked towards the door to lead to their lions garage. They were gonna work a bit more on programing some robots, Keith guessed. Hunk went off in the direction of the kitchen as per normal. Keith was practically just falling asleep sitting down. Lance had gotten up, moving over towards the door that led towards the paladins rooms. Keith agreed with that notion, trying to jump up onto the floor above the sunken down couch, almost falling backwards as soon as he had managed to stand up however. He felt an arm reach out to grab his own and pull him back to standing upright.

"Whoa, Keith, are you okay?" Says the voice. Keith glances up to see Lance looking down at him with his eyebrows furrowed in worry. Keith blinks up at him a few times, trying to process the words. He was too tired to really care about using words, knowing he would mess them up and stutter a lot in his current state. He gives Lance a small smile and nods, gently pulling his arm away and beginning to walk again, only to feel a rush of dizziness and nearly falls over, throwing an arm out to support himself against the nearest thing, which happened to be Lance who still stayed close. "Dude, you are _not_ okay." he says firmly, holding Keith's torso up with his hands, keeping him steady. Keith shakes his head, opening his mouth in protest but Lance beat him to it. "No. Keith you're not freaking okay. You're exhausted." Keith feels himself being picked up, and he can't really object since he doubted he would be able to walk by himself.

Lance had thrown him over his shoulder though, that was the only thing that Keith had a protest about. Lance wasn't the most comfy of people to have their shoulder being jabbed into your ribs and stomach. Keith was too tired to complain, fighting off sleep even while in that position. It didn't really work as he was passed out cold within a few seconds. Lance entered the bedroom hallway, carrying Keith over his shoulder as he thought for a second. His room was the closest to the front of the hallway and Keith's was the farthest. It was only natural that Lance chose his room to go into with a sleeping Keith. He let the door woosh open in front of him, walking inside and turning towards his bed to gently put Keith down on it. Lance looked down at Keith's face. He was knocked out cold. Lance smiled a little, adjusting the red paladin so that he could take off the crop-top like jacket and throw it to the side, take off those stupid looking boots, and to tuck Keith under the covers. Lance stepped back after making sure that Keith would be comfortable before looking around with a frown and thinking, ' _where the heck am I gonna sleep now?_ ' It was honestly a very serious question that he should've asked himself before he put Keith into his bed. In all honesty, he could just sleep in the bed with Keith. It was his bed after all. It's not like Keith could be mad about it. So Lance just changed into loose shorts and a t-shirt before pushing Keith over a bit in bed and laying down beside him, trying to give him as much room as possible. Lance could immediately feel Keiths body heat as he got under the covers. It was like being in an oven. Lance regretted choosing to sleep in his bed, but moved over as much as he could so that the heat wouldn't bother him as much. Lance looks over his shoulder to make sure that they were facing opposite ways, smiling a little at Keith's face before finally settling down and letting himself fall asleep.

Keith wasn't sure what time it was when he woke up, but he slowly blinked open his eyes, facing the wall. Keith didn't remember making it back to his room, let alone falling asleep in his bed. He did remember Lance looking really concerned and picking him up, then...? Keith guessed he must have passed out. He sighed lightly as he rubbed his eyes, turning over to look at the time, freezing when he saw someone else sleeping beside him. He sat up instantly, scooting away as far as he could. He put a hand over his chest as he glared over at whoever was in the same bed as him. After getting a better look he recognized it as Lance. Lance? Keith's brow furrowed in confusion. What was he doing here? Keith looked around and realized that this was indeed not his room. He leaned over Lance's sleeping body, careful not to touch him as he looked over at the digital clock beside his bed with bright blue numbers. 1:04AM, the numbers glared at him. Well, damn. Keith sat back down on his side of the bed with eyebrows furrowed. Whenever he woke up this late, he would always go to Hunks room and sleep with the larger boy because he needed that physical closeness sometimes. That was out of the question now though, Lance would wake up and not see Keith there, making him freak out and then chide Keith later for not appreciating his sacrifices and his bed. He lets out a deep breath through his nose before sliding down under the covers again, closing his eyes as he breathed slowly. He just wanted to sleep. After trying to shut off his mind wasn't working, Keith turned over to face Lances sleeping form. Even in the darkness, he could see tiny freckles on the back of his neck and some of his shoulder that had been exposed. He could see tiny little scars from scabs he has most likely picked off repeatedly as a child or something, seeing how the scars didn't look too bad. His hair was going to be a mess when he woke up, Keith mused with a smile, seeing how half of it was basically sticking up already. It was cute.

Whoa hold on a second.

_Cute?_

Keith had totally _not_ just referred to Lance as cute. He was also the president of the United States. Okay, so he thought that Lance was cute. That was new, but the thought wasn't really unwelcome. He yawns a bit, covering his mouth as he closed his eyes. He was so, so tired. He hears a shifting beside him, causing him to let his eyes fly open. Lance had turned over to face Keith, still asleep. Keith held his breath as he looked at Lance's face. _Holy hell_ he was pretty up close. He actually had a pretty decent face when it was in a neutral state to be honest. It was so much better when his mouth wasn't running off bad pickup lines at Allura, or throwing childish comments at Keith. He couldn't help but smile a little as he looked at Lance's peaceful face. The smile fell as he let out a soft yawn once more, he needed to sleep but he knew that wouldn't be possible without some sort of cuddling, and he didn't want to be pillowless. He could probably cuddle up to Lance without the blue paladin ever knowing that it was intentional. He knew Lance was okay with touching and being touched, to some extent at least. He might have been around the same level as Keith if he was honest. Lance always wrapped someone up in a half hug if he was comforting them, whenever he got excited, when he was happy, when he was sad… He just seemed to like hugs, honestly; Keith had never seen Lance actually hug anyone full out though, maybe he would embrace the occasional girl or two, but he usually got slapped for it. Keith shook his head, getting his mind focused on the present. He made a mental table, seeing what was wrong in this idea. They only con that he could point out was if Lance woke up as Keith was settling against him, his idea of pretending to be asleep wouldn't really work at that point, but it seemed as if Lance was quite a heavy sleeper. Keith decided to throw caution to the wind as he slowly made his way a little closer, making sure to watch Lance's face for any sign he would wake up. There was none even as Keith became almost nose to nose with the boy. He inched down a little to rest his forehead against Lance's chest, wrapping his arms around the taller boy's midsection. His chest was a lot softer than Keith had originally thought it would be. What was he supposed to think it felt like? Hard? No way, Lance didn't work out enough to have a rock hard chest. Keith found he didn't care either way as he closed his eyes, nuzzling into Lance's chest a bit more as he could finally feel the pull of sleep taking him away.

Until there was movement between his arms. Keith freezes as he waits for Lance to stop moving and for him to ask what he was doing; instead Keith felt a pair of arms snake around his own body, one in his hair and the other in the small of his back. A leg hag managed to slip through his own, making a comfortable home between his legs. Keith dared to look up, wanting to see Lance's face in reaction to all this, but there was none. He was still asleep. Keith silently thanked whatever god was out there as he inched a bit upwards to get into a comfortable sleeping position, his head resting into the crook of Lance's neck, one arm around his torso and the other comfortably sandwiched between the two. Keith closed his eyes and he was finally, _finally_ , able to sleep. Lance, however, had woken up half an hour later from the amount of heat that was engulfing him, it felt like he was on fire. He slowly opened his eyes, grunting a little as he looked over to his blanket, moving his hand to try to throw it off. It seemed to be wrapped around someone? Lance looked down, finally seeing why he was boiling to death. Of course he had started to cuddle Keith while he was sleeping, it was a habit he had as kid whenever he shared the bed with any of his siblings, of course it would still be in tact. He groaned mentally, too tired to actually pull himself away from the red paladin. He just wanted some sleep. He moved his most free arm, pulling the covers down to about waist level, deeming it better enough for him to wrap his arm around Keith again. He let his head rest on top of that stupid mullet he pretended to hate so much, letting out a deep breath before falling asleep once more.

When it was time to get up, Lance woke up first. He liked sleeping in, but this time he was awoken by something else. He needed to pee. Really badly. Lance looked down, seeing Keith still attached to him, maybe even more so than before. Maybe he was secretly a sleep cuddler too? Lance didn't really have time to think about that right now. He needed to find a way to leave to get to the bathroom. Lance stared at Keith's face, trying to figure out a way. His face looked so peaceful and calm, he looked like when he woke up, he was going to have the best day of his whole life. His face was kinda pretty when his eyebrows weren't furrowed all the time. Pretty? Yeah, pretty. Lance could admit that Keith was pretty, albeit his style choices weren't… the best. That still doesn't change the fact that _Lance really needs to pee_. He needed to get away from this human heater. He moved his arm that was draped over Keith, attempting to roll away. Keith's grip only tightened, letting out a sleepful murmur of something Lance couldn't understand. So prying himself away wouldn't work. Keith was still ridiculously strong in his sleep, maybe even more. It's kinda attractive, Lance thinks. He used his free arm to muse his sleep tousled hair as he thought about what to do. He might get punched for it due to the guy's weirdly accurate reflexes, but he could just shake Keith awake. Even if he was punched, he would be free to go pee, so he took that change. He poked at Keith's shoulder, even shaking his shoulder a bit. It took a few minutes but finally, Keith stirred, swatting away Lance's hand as his eyes slowly blinked open, removing his arm that was wrapped around Lance to rub at his eyes, freeing Lance from the red paladin's grip. This allowed him to make a quick escape to the bathroom to relieve himself as Keith tried to wake up. Keith sat up in his bed, blinking as he looked around. He was still tired, honestly, he could probably sleep for another few hours if he really wanted to. He was already awake though, so there wasn't any point in going back to sleep, but god be damned if he didn't lay back down and try.

When Lance had come back from the bathroom, he saw Keith laying flat on his stomach on his bed, face embedded into a pillow as he held onto another one just because. Lance smiled a little, his heart doing a weird flip flop at the sight. He ignored the feeling as he let out a near comical yawn to alert the red paladin of his presence. Keith turned his head slightly with half lidded eyes to stare up at Lance, the taller of the two just grinning before turning over towards the dresser to start getting ready for the day.

"Sorry that you had to deal with me all night" Keith spoke up first.

Lance chuckled lightly at that and shrugged it off, "It wasn't that bad." He replied, not trying to figure out what he had exactly meant by that. He was too awake to get back to sleep, and sadly, the same was for Keith. He got up, back still facing Lance as he moved to sit back on his legs, brushing out his hair with his fingers and stretching his sore muscles (of course, being trapped in a cuddle prison had do have some side effects) before moving to get off the bed. He picked up his jacket from where it had been discarded on the floor, sitting back on the bed to put on his boots he had grabbed from the foot of the bed. He needed to leave to give Lance his personal space to dress and stuff, he would be uncomfortable getting dressed in front of Lance personally, so he assumed it would be the same the other way around. He stood up and shrugged on his jacket, daring to glance over at Lance who was stripping himself of his shirt to dig through his drawers. Keith tore his eyes away to give him some privacy, a weird feeling arising in his stomach.

"I'm gonna go back to my room for a bit so that you can get ready." He announced out loud, standing in front of the door and using the panel beside it to open it. Keith heard a small "thanks" from Lance before he left, smiling all the way back to his room. Lance had silently thanked all heavens that Keith had left because honestly he wanted to be ready before everyone else today, just so he could brag about it. Keith had made it back to his room, going into the bathroom to get ready for the day as well. He couldn't get over the fact that he had slept basically uninterrupted for an entire night, not only that, but it was one of the best sleeps he had ever had. He showered, brushed his teeth, got dressed, and finally made his way out of his room. He wanted some food honestly, he felt like he could eat as much as Hunk now that his appetite had been restored with the nights good rest. Along Keith's way to the kitchen, he had seen Lance not too far ahead of him. He smiled a little and sped up a little to catch up to the taller boy. When he was finally beside them, they made eye contact, smiling understandingly at each other. They knew they both needed something like that sometimes. It was only human. After a few seconds of silence, Lance spoke up.

"Did you know you're literally a heater?"

Keith snorted. Yeah, it wouldn't be awkward at all.

"Yeah, well you drool, I could see stains on your pillow."

"What! I do not!"

Within the next few weeks, it had become an unspoken agreement where if one couldn't sleep or just needed someone to have some downtime with, they would go to each other's rooms. Keith usually went down to Lance's room from 12am to 2am depending on what his night had consisted of, but it was almost every night, minus the nights Lance came to his room around 9pm to 11pm. They didn't need to knock on each others doors, just needed to let themselves in and lay down wherever they deemed they needed to for the night. Once, they had fallen asleep on each other in the middle of a group meeting in the lounge, which made Hunk smile, realizing why Keith had stopped coming into his room in the night. They had grown accustomed to sleeping next to each other, becoming close enough to recognize when the other was having a bad day. If Keith was having a bad day because some training exercise had gone wrong, or they had to retreat from a Galra fleet to save a race, then Lance would walk straight up to him and invite him to spar. It got Keith tired out enough to take a stress nap at most, which Lance was glad for. Whenever Lance was feeling homesick and lonely, Keith would gently hold onto his hand and pull him off to a non-populated area of the castle so that they could sit in silence, Lance holding onto Keith's hand as a support. Sometimes he cried. Keith hated to see Lance cry. It didn't suit him. Even though he was bad at comforting people, he would pull Lance into a hug, letting him get it all out while rubbing his back. Keith had yet to cry in front of Lance, but sometimes while they were cuddling, Lance would wake up sometimes to hear sharp inhales and feel Keith's body shaking. He just pulled the smaller closer to him.

One day though, they had left Keith's room holding onto each others hands, fingers laced together as they exchanged light banter back and forth on their way to the dining room to eat the breakfast they knew would be there. They entered together, noticing that Pidge and Hunk were in there already, Pidge sitting in a seat across the table from them, food forgotten and typing away at a laptop. Hunk trying to understand the codes that Pidge was hastily typing in like there would never be a day for it again. Pidge looked up at the two teen boys as they entered, bickering about the best band and artists to listen to.

"I'm telling you, man, Beyonce can never get old." Lance argued.

"Sorry, but I still think MCR beats her any day. They're more real with their music." Keith shot back, sighing as he rubbed his temples. They sat down together, interlocked hands resting on top of the table as they reached out to grab some bowls for the goo.

Pidge looked down at their interlocked hands, before looking back up at the both of them.

"When are you guys going to start dating?" They asked in exasperation.

Lance and Keith looked over to Pidge, replying at the same time right away.

"What?!"

"Wait, we aren't?"

Lance looked over at Keith, expression slightly scared and surprised. Keith looked back, confusion on his face. Lance was screaming internally. A little externally too.

"Whoa, what?! When did we start dating?" He exclaimed towards Keith, trying to keep his voice even but failing miserably.

Keith just sighed and looked up, sending his thoughts as a prayer to whatever god was out there before looking at Lance with his eyes slightly narrowed.

"Lance. We cuddle. We hold hands with our fingers interlocked." He lifted their hands as proof, Lance took his hand away to cover his rapidly growing red face, "If you ask me, that's pretty gay. Not even to mention, like a week ago while I was in your room before you fell asleep you were like, "hey man, I love you" and I was like, "I love you, too", and I thought that was it." Keith finished explaining, crossing his arms. "We had a _bonding_ _moment,_ Lance."

Lance let out a sound as if he were a dying animal, whispering something under his breath about stupid ' _bonding moments_ ' before glancing over towards the red paladin. "Keith… I was asleep when I said that, I swear. I would've remembered that." He muttered into his hands. "Honest to god, I would've remembered."

Keith felt a little bad then, a small flush attacking his cheeks as he sighed, reaching over and taking one of Lance's hands away from his face, lacing their fingers together once more.

"Do you want to be my boyfriend?" He asked, looking over at Lance like he already knew the answer. Lance let out an embarrassed sound, hiding his face as much as he could with one hand, but it was still obvious he was blushing hard and smiling widely. Lance nodded and muttered a, "Yeah." and that was all Keith needed to hear before pressing a light kiss to Lance's knuckles, finishing reaching for his bowl and serving himself some of the food goo.

Pidge raised an eyebrow at them, regretting the fact that they had to ask, and stayed to see through to the end of that sickeningly sweet display. Hunk congratulated them with a wide smile, Keith smiling back at them.

"I can't believe how _gay_ you two are." Pidge snorted, closing their laptop and walking away from the now official couple.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for the loml whos gonna be the lance to my keith ;33ccc i love him to bits aaaaa  
> also u can scream w/ me on my tumblr @ redpaladinkeithkogane or on my ig @ red.paladin.keith


End file.
